Olympic programme for school computers

Press, 22 July 1988, Page 34

Olympic programme for school computers

By

JENNY LONG

When Olympic fervour grips New Zealand later this year, school pupils will be able to analyse the results with a new computer programme developed at Christchurch Teachers College. The programme, developed by a college lecturer, Dr Vince Ham, gives all the information from the 1984 Olympic Games, including events, competing countries, and place-getters. As this year’s Games progress, pupils will be able to enter the results, then use the data to compare performances, or create medal tables, for example. The Olympic programme was good because it was topical, and

could be applied to many school subjects. Dr Ham said.

By adding additional information, geographers could analyse the relationship between a country’s population and economic status and medals won, Dr Ham said. “The last thing we want is for the programme to be used only by computing students.” Many people still did not realise that they could learn with the computer rather than learning about the computer, Dr Ham said.

“The computer is simply another tool, like a textbook, or a video.”

The Olympic programme would encourage pupils to ask their own questions and to sort and

search for information, Dr Ham said. The database for the Olympic programme, which contained 681 names of events and winners, and 160 countries, had taken “hours and hours” to key into the computer, Dr Ham: said. The database gave pupils access to information which would be unmanageable to analyse if it were presented in any other form, Dr Ham said. The computer database can be used in conjunction with an Olympic kit which is to be produced by “The Press” Newspapers in Education. Schools wanting copies of the Olympic programme can send a blank disk to Dr Ham at Christchurch Teachers College.